Bitter Black Coffee
by extenuatingcircumlocution
Summary: Sumire isn't fond of her job at Starbucks until a hot customer becomes her regular. Sumire-centric? (Rated T for swearing? I don't know what I'm doing.) Complete!
1. Chapter 1: Love at First Sight

_A/N: Hello! This is my first fanfiction (that I've ever published, that is). I hope it's not disgusting. I thought up this idea when I was at McDonalds drinking a milkshake. Don't ask me how because this story only takes place in a Starbucks, where they sell coffee. Whatever. Enjoy! Feel free to leave a comment or whatever you like! :)_

**Love at First Sight**

**Despite** her love of coffee, Sumire hadn't been particularly ecstatic to apply for a Starbucks job. It wasn't a glamorous or flattering job, but she had to have a way to pay for her rent while she was in college. There was a Starbucks near campus and that was plenty convenient for Sumire.

If only her parents hadn't stopped funding her! Once they found out she had a B in one of courses, they went insane, snapping and shouting. And now Sumire had to find her own income.

Her confidence and intelligence helped her pass the interview with flying colors and she was welcomed to the Starbucks family.

So there she stood, behind the counter, at goddamn 7:30 in the morning wearing a stupid hat and apron, running through coffee recipes in her head. Not that it mattered. No one had even glanced at the shop.

Wakako had agreed to come and check up on her after her class, but that would be in a couple of hours. For now her only company was some doofus who called himself Kitsuneme (what kind of name was that?) and a scarily shy girl named Anna. Kitsuneme was out cold in the storage room and Anna was preparing herself a hot chocolate.

Sumire sighed in boredom. Wasn't this the life? Standing at the register, eyeing the pastries with a halfhearted lust, waiting for a customer who might not come for an hour at least.

And just when she was considering joining Kitsuneme in his coma in the storeroom, _he _walked in.

He was wearing a black suit that looked silky and fit his body like a sexy glove (although he looked uncomfortable wearing it; he kept tugging at his tie uneasily). The knotted crimson tie really did succeed in bringing out his - _goddamn! _Were his eyes _red_?

Sumire was in heaven. Anna squeaked in acknowledgement to the sexy man and nudged Sumire, muttering to her, "He orders the same simple coffee every morning, so he should be an easy first customer. You can take him."

_Don't mind if I do, _thought Sumire.

The sexy suit guy bit the inside of his cheek while Sumire ironed out her nonexistent wrinkles with her hands to make sure she looked presentable.

"Good morning," she greeted smoothly, trying to keep her voice low and attractive.

"Hi," he answered, his voice bored and impatient. He inhaled before rushing out, "I'll take a regular black coffee, no sugar, no cream, smallest size… please."

_Weren't smallest sizes called "talls"?_

"Um," spluttered Sumire. "Yes, sir." She wasn't succeeding in being seductive. She fumbled to grab a styrofoam cup and a sharpie. "Name?"

"Natsume," he said. He spelled it for her and she tried to keep her hands from shaking as she wrote his name as neatly and beautifully as she could on the cup.

_Natsume. _

Sumire felt chills running through her entire body as she accepted his money and went to prepare his coffee. She hummed to herself as she tried to focus on the coffee and making it as good as possible. However, focusing was difficult when his name was spinning through her head like a top on its axis.

_Natsume. Natsume. Natsume.._

"Natsume," she called out softly, savoring the wonderfully sweet taste of his name on her tongue.

He turned around and slipped his phone slickly into his pocket. Their fingers brushed when he held his coffee and Sumire held down a gasp for air as though the wind was knocked out of her.

"It's funny," she said, refusing to allow him to simply _leave_. "Most people your age like at least a bit of cream in their coffee."

Natsume's eyebrows furrowed and he pulled his coffee towards him. "I hate coffee."

He turned around swiftly and walked for the door with his icky bitter black coffee.

"My name is Sumire!" she blurted out.

Her face boiled as Natsume swung open the door and said, disinterestedly, "I know."

It took her a moment to realize that he knew from her nametag and not some crazy superpower. Anna giggled at her "silliness" because she apparently thought it was "adorable" that hard Sumire would turn into pudding at the sight of a hot guy. But he wasn't just a hot guy. He was Natsume.

Her heart beat like a hummingbird's for the rest of the day.

...

**She** didn't have another morning shift for a week. She struggled to convince her manager that she worked best early in the morning (which was complete bullshit) and since she had proved to be rather decent, he allowed her to have an _extra _shift for two and a half hours each morning.

Sumire came in for her second morning shift ever, excited to see _him. _She was tying her apron around her waist when she saw a yawning Anna shiver as she readied herself by the cash register.

"No!" yelled Sumire. Anna looked up, tired and confused. "I mean," annexed Sumire, embarrassed. "You always work _so _hard, Anna. I should be by the register. You just make yourself some hot chocolate."

Anna smirked and nodded, turning around to move to the machines. What was she smirking for? As if she knew why Sumire wanted to take her spot! Because, to be completely honest, Sumire wasn't sure either.

When the door opened, the bell rang, and a gush of wind flew into the warm room, Sumire exhaled in her daydream to see once again the dark haired Adonis stride into her Starbucks.

"Good morning!"

"Yeah." He looked exhausted but the cold outside had reddened his cheeks so much it was hard to tell if he really did have bags under his eyes. "Coffee," he commanded.

Sumire wrote his name - ever so gracefully - onto a styrofoam cup and got busy preparing his coffee.

"So," she said, blushing as she tried to maintain conversation. "If you hate coffee so much, why do you drink it black?"

He blinked, perhaps out of tiredness, or maybe because he forgot that he told her anything about his lack of fondness for the beverage she was making him. "I have to work for ten hours everyday and I sleep for five, recently three. If I drink my coffee with any _whipped cream_ I'd throw up and pass out by noon."

Sumire nodded in understanding. She was a bit surprised that a sexy man as young as Natsume was working ten hours. He had to still be in college, like her. "What's your job?"

Natsume shrugged. "Interning for a lawyer."

_A lawyer? Damn, that's hot. . ._

"You work ten hours as an intern?" That couldn't be normal.

"A lot of my work is just doing the shit his dumb secretary can't handle."

Sumire swallowed and her hand shook on his ready cup as she realized that his coffee was done. He could leave now.

"His . . . secretary. . ." He trailed off, his eyes on the ground and his voice soft and subtle as a cloud.

Sumire thought she saw his face redden, but in that moment the door opened and the cold rushed in, so she couldn't be sure he hadn't just turned scarlet from the chill.

She handed him his hot coffee and he walked out, tugging at his tie, as quickly as possible, not even glancing back at her.

"Wait!" she called. But it was too late. He was gone.

Anna chuckled from the back of the kitchen, grasping her hot chocolate cozily. Sumire ignored her.

She turned to see the next customer waiting, staring at the pastries display. He was someone she recognized frequently roaming around campus. He kind of looked like a shaggy dog, messy hair flying everywhere in dirty blond tufts, his blue eyes happy but unfocused, his creepy smile reminiscent of a golden retriever's.

"Yo!" he exclaimed, stepping toward the cash register. "I'll take a venti caramel frappuccino with a shitload of whipped cream." He beamed at her but Sumire was a little annoyed that this moron replaced Natsume.

"Name?" she bit out.

"Koko - spelled _Knockout! Knockout_!" What. The. Hell.

"Huh?" Sumire cocked her head to the side.

"K.O.! K.O.!"

"Oh, how hilarious," replied Sumire snidely.

She scribbled his name hastily onto the cup and started to prepare his sorry excuse for "coffee".

"Sumire, huh?" Koko leaned on the counter, supported on his elbows, smiling his creepy dog-smile. "You look more like a 'Permy' to me!"

Was he trying to flirt with her? It wasn't working.

"'Permy'? What the hell does that mean?" She glared at him as she applied the whipped cream to his drink.

"Your perms! They hang off the sides of your face. You're a permy perm!"

Sumire gritted her teeth and slammed his coffee onto the counter in front of him.

"Have a _swell_ day," she said sarcastically.

Koko's smile grew even broader. "Can I have your number?"

"Hell no."

Koko winked and scooped up his drink in his gloved hands. "Have a great day, Permy!"

"It's Sumire!" she snapped after the door had already closed.

...

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2: The Extra Order

_A/N: Second chapter! How exciting! I am so sorry if I mess up something regarding Starbucks. I just wanted to write a coffeeshop AU. I don't know anything about coffee or Starbucks. -.- I'm sorry, haha. Sorry that there's not a lot of Koko in this chapter. He won't show up in the next one at all, but in the fourth, he will definitely be prevalent. Also, I didn't say this last time, but I don't own Gakuen Alice. If I did, there'd be a lot more Permy, haha._

**Chapter Two: The Extra Order**

**After** about two weeks of fixing up Natsume's same boring drink of bitter, black coffee for the whole of two weeks, he hesitated at the register. "Um…actually," he mumbled, his short, perfect eyebrows furrowed. "Can you get me something else, too?"

Sumire's heart fluttered. _What? You're finally asking for my number? _Her face lit on fire and she softly – hopefully sexily as well – asked, "What?"

His face reddened a bit – she was so sure of it this time. _Here it comes!_

"Can you get me… uh…" He fished in his pants pockets – those hot fucking black pants; God, he looked gorgeous in them – and pulled out a piece of paper crumpled into a tiny ball. _He came prepared!_ thought Sumire ecstatically. He seemed to uncrumple it in a panicky sort of way, like he was embarrassed to be seen holding paper. Then he proceeded to _read _off of it. "A tall chocolate frappuccino." He sighed and blushed some more before adding, "With whipped cream and chocolate sauce."

"Oh." In that moment, all of Sumire's hopes and dreams shattered and blew into the wind in a cloud of dust with all of Natsume's second order. "Yeah, I can get that for you! No problem!" Sumire started up the machine with a smile on her face but her mind was screaming, _Why, why, why?! _

The door opened, wind flew in, the bell jingled. And to make Sumire's morning even worse, Koko the pinhead walked in.

"Hello, Perms!" he exclaimed, strolling to the cash register. "You're looking beautiful today." _Dear God, no. NO._

Natsume, face still red, looked at Koko and nodded nervously in greeting. He was still embarrassed from ordering his girlfriend's coffee.

"I'll just have the usual, Perm," said Koko after winking at Natsume.

Refraining from snapping at him to _stop calling her "Perm" or any derivative_, she ignored him and asked Natsume, "Is this order for your girlfriend?" Dread slowly dripped into her stomach, forming a sizable puddle of unpleasant feelings. She figured she might throw up that pool of despair. Maybe she could throw up in his girlfriend's coffee when he wasn't looking.

"Oh…uh, no." Unable to look at him, Sumire thought she caught a hint of displeasure in Natsume's voice, as if he wanted his answer to be different. "Just a ….coworker."

_The dumb secretary!_ thought Sumire immediately.

She groaned as she imagined a long-legged, drop dead gorgeous blonde with a heavily made up face, long lashes, plump limps, and a seductive smile.

Sumire felt like crying. She probably had never stood a chance in the first place.

As if surrendering for today, she set Natsume's two coffees on the counter as soon as they were finished for the first time in all the time she'd been serving him.

"I hope she likes it," she whispered when he took the cups in his hand. She almost wished she meant it, since Natsume's eyes went soft, agreeing with her.

He murmured a "thanks" to her, turned, and left the shop.

While Sumire's stomach did backflips that he thanked her for the first time, Koko _had _to interrupt her happy time with "So the doofus doesn't have a way with the ladies, huh?" He smirked teasingly. "That's cute!"

"Shut up," snapped Sumire, starting on his coffee.

Koko had just reminded her that Natsume – the amazingly attractive regular – was taken.

Wow, her life _sucked_.

...

**Sumire** refused to stop flirting with him, though. Even if the seductive smiles and double entendres failed to sway him from his dumb secretary, it was important to her that she could at least _feel _like she hadn't lost quite yet. However, he started ordering the other coffee every time he came in, a creamy and sweet chill alongside his bitter black steam.

One morning, Sumire had the courage inside her to ask for the dumb blonde secretary's name.

Natsume cleared his throat as if about to say something crucial. "Mikan." The name came out slowly and carefully, as if he'd never said it before and was savoring the feel of it as if left his lips. Just like the way Sumire had savored the feeling of his name the first time she'd said it. Just like she _still _savored it.

"Is she pretty?"

She didn't know what possessed her to ask that. She didn't even want to know what the girl looked like because she's hate her even more. If she could meet her, she'd probably tackle her and scratch her eyes out…probably.

He hesitated and gulped. "She is to me."

Sumire's heart died, then. _Maybe the secretary means more to him than just long legs and full lips and lashes. _

He collected his coffee and thanked her, and left. He always just…left.

Sumire swallowed her words of anguish and asked Anna to prepare Koko his coffee when he came in, claiming that she was lightheaded.

And then she ran into the bathroom and sobbed her heart out for a good thirty minutes, her head screaming, _why, why, why?!_


	3. Chapter 3: The Dumb Secretary

_A/N: OK! I'm almost done here, sadly. One more chapter to go. There's no Koko, I'm sorry. But the rest of the characters are, so it should make up for it a bit. If this story was written in any other character's POV, this would be an extremely fluffy and cute chapter, but since it's Sumire, it's more sad. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! (I do not own the characters or Gakuen Alice or anything. They all belong to Higuchi Tachibana. I'm just a fanfiction writer.)_

**Chapter ****Three: The Dumb Secretary**

**The** next day, as Sumire was wiping the counter, about forty-five minutes before Natsume came in everyday, a relatively short girl came in to the store.

"Good morning!" she chirped. It completely evaded Sumire how _anyone _could be peppy at 6:40 in the morning.

"Hmm," replied Sumire, not in the best mood and still upset over Natsume's crush on his secretary. She half expected Anna or even Kitsu to take this one, but Anna had gone to the bathroom and Kitsu was still out cold in the store room. And so she grumbled, "Good morning."

"I had to get something for a friend, so I'm sorry if I came in really early!" the girl apologized, sincerely.

"No problem," replied Sumire, not so sincerely.

"I'll have a tall chocolate frappuccino with whipped cream and chocolate sauce and a black coffee, no cream, no sugar."

Sumire's mind fell blank.

_The dumb secretary._

"S… Sure…" Sumire fumbled as she pulled out two cups. _Now for the moment of truth. _"Name?"

"Uh… Mikan," stuttered the girl. "But can you write 'Natsume' on the black coffee cup?"

_No… _"Why not?" Sumire muttered as she positioned the Sharpie over the plastic cup, writing the stupid secretary's name.

"Natsume is spelled-"

Frustrated, Sumire snapped, "I know." She then proceeded to write the familiar letters on the side of the styrofoam cup, so gently, so carefully.

Mikan smiled, despite Sumire's outburst just now. "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed.

Sumire just did her job and prepared her coffee, refusing to look at her.

_She has Natsume and I don't._

"I hope the dumb workaholic likes it!"

_Pfft! He only works ten hours because _you _are too dumb to do your own damn job!_

"I mean, he started getting _me _coffee every morning, so I figured I could do it every once in a while."

_He wrote your order down on a piece of paper so he wouldn't forget it!_ Sumire's heart was starting to ache.

"The grouch can really be sweet sometimes." Mikan's voice went soft with affection and Sumire's blood boiled. Mikan giggled. "Haha, sorry! I guess I'm kind of rambling, aren't I?"

_Yeah, you are. Now shut up before I vomit in your coffee. Yours, of course, not Natsume's. Never Natsume's._

Sumire placed the lids tightly on the cups and, more gently than she originally intended, set the drinks on the counter.

"Wow! You're really fast!" complimented Mikan.

Sumire took this chance to take a good hard look at Natsume's dumb secretary.

She was _plain._ Scoffably plain. She wasn't nearly as pretty as she had imagined.

"_She is to me."_

Her hair curled at the ends, all honey brown and sort of dull. It barely fell past her shoulders. Her lips were thin and pink, like a baby's, and her face was reddened by the freezing cold outside. Her nose was _average,_ but her eyes were big and kind of sparkled, especially as she smiled thanks to the person who hated her more than anything in the world right now.

_You're Mikan._

_You're Natsume's dumb secretary._

_He thinks that you of all people are pretty. _

Sumire's heart turned inside out.

Mikan was wearing pink mittens and a big fluffy white coat over her blouse and skirt. Instead of wearing heels like a _normal secretary _would, she was wearing cat patterned tights and goddamned mary janes. _What was she? Six?_

"Why _you_?" Sumire whispered, wistfully.

"Huh?" Mikan tilted her head to the side, just as the bell chimed, the door opened, and a freezing cold wind blew in, chilling Sumire even further down to the bone.

They both turned around to see Natsume walk in the shop.

_Why was he so early?_

His eyes widened a bit. "Polka-dots?"

While Sumire was taken aback in confusion, Mikan furrowed her eyebrows. "Can you call me by my name even once? Gosh, you act like you don't even _know _it!"

_So that _had _been the first time he'd said her name._

He rolled his gorgeous crimson eyes. "What the hell are you doing here, Polka-dots?"

"Mikan! My name is Mikan!"

_Was Polka-dots his nickname for her?_

"It would be real swell if you called me by my name instead of my underwear pattern!"

_He had… wait, what?!_

"Underwear?" Sumire repeated.

Red seemed to flush both of their faces, Natsume turning slightly to hide his.

"It's nothing," Mikan said, her voice panicked.

"What are you doing here?" Natsume asked again. He replaced his cute flush with a hot, indifferent expression.

"I got you coffee!" exclaimed Mikan with a smile, lifting his cup with her mitten-y hands.

"You… You woke up early to get me coffee?"

"Well, you always do it, so I figured I could do it." She beamed at him. "For once, you know."

"You never wake up early. You're always late. Sometimes I have to call you to get you up."

"Yeah, and I'm telling you I woke up early today!"

"I mean, I know you said you'd be at work earlier today, but I didn't know you were going to get me coffee. I came early to get you your coffee earlier." His tone was angry, but Sumire saw in his eyes that he wasn't. "Why didn't you tell me so I could sleep in? I can't believe you woke up an hour and a half early so you could get me fucking _coffee_." He shook his head and turned away again. _Probably to hide his blush again_, thought Sumire bitterly. "You're so stupid."

"Well," said Mikan, still smiling at him. "I already got you coffee, and we're both awake, so it's too late to be all upset. Let's hang out somewhere!" Mikan marched over to a surprised looking Natsume like a little kid to her mother and handed over his coffee cup. He held it and she grabbed his free hand with her free mitten hand. "Ah!" She jumped. "You're so cold!" She tightened her grip on his hand and led him out of the store, humming, giving a smile to Sumire as she went. "Bye, friend!"

Only Sumire could have comprehended that as a gloating taunt instead of a friendly farewell. However, as she glared at them, she saw a hint of a smile on Natsume's face when Mikan wasn't looking.

_He loves her._

_Not me._

_Why would he ever care about me?_


	4. Chapter 4: Knockout

_A/N: Last chapter! I'm sorry for the last chapter being sad. Hopefully this will kind of make up for it. I like Koko a lot so here you go- a whole bunch of him. Thank you for reading so far and reviewing this story. It means a lot since it's my first story and I've already had almost 200 views! Thank you! I don't own GA or any of the characters since Higuchi Tachibana owns them. I hope you enjoy the last chapter and don't think it's a lame ending. :)_

**Chapter Four: Knockout**

**Sumire** was sitting at one of the tiny tables against the wall. Her head was buried in arms on the tabletop. It had been an hour since Natsume left with his dumb secretary.

She had cried three tons of tears and Anna was still gone while Kitsu was still out cold in the stupid store room. Besides a professor who ordered regular black coffee (making Sumire swallow her sadness and heavy sobs as she prepared it for her), there hadn't been any customers. Sumire hoped it would stay that way.

Wakako would be in soon so that Sumire could cry herself silly with someone petting her but for now she was alone. She would never be with Natsume. She would never mean anything to him.

The bell rang, the door opened, and the wind froze her in place.

"Ughh… " grumbled Sumire. "We're closed." She didn't bother picking her head off the table to look at the waiting customer.

"That's OK. I know my way around," said Koko's annoying fucking voice.

"Fucking _shit_, Koko!" exclaimed Sumire, thrusting her head up sharply to look at him. Her head was spinning with tears and vertigo.

Koko was already behind the counter, placing a styrofoam cup in front of him. He revved up a machine and smiled at her, his stupid golden retriever smile.

"Get out of there! You don't work here! You can't wedge yourself wherever you want with no consequences! You can't just wedge yourself into my life!" Sumire started bawling, tears falling down her cheeks in large globs. "It's not cool to make yourself important to someone just to love someone else! It's not fair!" She was fumbling with her words now, but before she knew it, she had started ranting about gorgeous Natsume, the lawyer's intern who ordered bitter black coffee for himself and sweet icy coffee for his girlfriend. Natsume, the lawyer's intern who worked ten hours to clean up the secretary's messes, who had a trouble with words and a hard time calling a girl by her name. A lawyer's intern who had broken her heart in less than a month.

Koko didn't even look at her, his doggy smile ever present, infinitely less creepy and so much softer. He moved about the kitchen with ease, not hesitating and never confused, as if he had spent every moment of his life there.

Even more strange - Sumire let him. After she'd finished her rampage and began going through a moment of numbness, she fell to her knees, holding up her face on her elbows on the counter, watching him move around.

After a minute, Koko placed the cup of steaming hot something in front of her.

"Huh?" Sumire looked up at him, wiping away the tears that had half-dried to her cheeks. "What the heck is this?"

"Koko's specialty hot chocolate, made with a secret recipe," he said softly. he raised his finger to his lips when he said "secret".

"What-"

"I used to work here," explained Koko, his smile never leaving his face. "I quit so I could have more time to take care of my mom. She was sick. U used to make this hot chocolate for her on bad days. She died a couple of weeks ago, and since I had nothing better to do, I started coming back here."

"I… I'm sorr-"

"I know you didn't know. There's no way you could've. It's really OK, I don't mind. People go all the time." Koko smiled boyishly. Sumire didn't find his smile so creepy anymore. "I started really liking you, so I decided I'd come in a lot more, and I haven't regretted it yet." He motioned to the cup with his smooth looking hand. "That hot chocolate can help warm anyone up, even your cold, unfeeling heart."

"What-?!"

"I'm kidding," he chuckled. "But it really does help, so drink up!" He looked at her expectantly.

Sumire raised her head off her elbows and took the cup in her hands, bringing it up to her lips tentatively.

More tears bubbled in her eyes as she tasted the sweet chocolate meshed smoothly with the whipped cream, The taste was fudgy and soft, warm and gentle.

It was absolutely wonderful.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Koko's smile was subtle when he whispered back, "Not a problem."

And then he wiped her tears away.

_**The end.**_


End file.
